Collaborative Proposal: MRA: Teleconnections Among Great Plains NEON Sites by Wind and Wing

合作提案：MRA：Wind 和 Wing 大平原 NEON 站点之间的远程连接

• 批准号: 1926555
• 负责人: Kevin McCluney
• 金额: $ 8.08万
• 依托单位: Bowling Green State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1926555&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Proposal; MRA; Teleconnections; Among

While most wetlands and ponds are physically isolated, their communities are linked over years and long distances, through a process called "teleconnections." These exchanges occur via atmospheric processes, temporary aquatic connections, natural 'hitchhiking' on other migrating animals, and dispersal by humans. Aquatic systems where these can be studied include Great Plains ephemeral wetlands. These systems, such as playas and prairie potholes, are abundant in grassland ecoregions and support resident invertebrate species, amphibians, and migrating waterfowl. Their ephemeral nature requires residents to periodically seek other aquatic systems or produce resistant eggs that allow them to survive dry periods lasting months to decades. Their 'signature' species are tiny fairy and tadpole shrimps. These lay resistant eggs which can be dispersed by 'wind and wing.' The former includes egg transport by prevailing Great Plains winds, and the latter by eggs hitching rides in the guts of migrating waterfowl to be deposited later in other wetlands. The research will manipulate community composition in outdoor tanks to determine competitive abilities of invertebrates from different sites and to check for migrating branchiopods in the digestive tracts of waterfowl shot by hunters. The project will use this accessible system to develop ecology programs for K-6th grade students; employing young students in science studies; educating under-served student populations, including Native Americans and students from our Hispanic Serving Institution; and working on wetlands-focused conservation.The research will focus on the question: how do teleconnections (dispersal by wind and wing) and climatic factors influence macroinvertebrate community composition and synchrony (temporal links) in ephemeral ponds within a macrosystem network? This project will test 6 hypotheses on factors shaping community composition that are related to: strong dispersal, geographically variable dispersal, strong climatic synchrony, geographically variable climatic synchrony, equal roles for dispersal and climate, and a null hypothesis on stochasticity. The study will be 25 sites in the greater region, including 5 sites within the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). The study will consist of: (1) sampling pond invertebrate densities and diversities; (2) analyzing genetic signatures of branchiopod crustacean populations; (3) conducting tank experiments on community assembly; (4) obtaining data on waterfowl migrating through NEON sites; (5) correlating effects of winds and rainfall on species traits; and (6) extracting, hatching, and identifying crustacean eggs from gut contents analysis of waterfowl. Overall, this research will test the validity of a poorly understood phenomenon, that the biota of systems can be coupled without respect to geographic proximity but instead tele-connected by wind or wing.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

虽然大多数湿地和池塘在物理上是孤立的，但它们的群落通过一种称为“遥相关”的过程，多年来长距离地联系在一起。“这些交换是通过大气过程、临时的水生联系、其他迁徙动物的自然‘搭便车’以及人类的传播而发生的。可以研究的水生系统包括大平原短暂湿地。这些系统，如盐湖和草原坑洞，在草原生态区丰富，并支持居民无脊椎动物物种，两栖动物和迁徙水鸟。它们的短暂性要求居民定期寻找其他水生系统或产生抗性卵，使它们能够在持续数月至数十年的干旱期中生存下来。它们的“标志性”物种是小仙女和蝌蚪虾。这些产卵的抵抗力可以被风和翅膀驱散。前者包括大平原盛行风带来的鸟蛋运输，后者则是鸟蛋在迁徙的水禽内脏中搭便车，随后沉积在其他湿地。这项研究将操纵户外水箱中的群落组成，以确定来自不同地点的无脊椎动物的竞争能力，并检查被猎人射杀的水禽消化道中迁移的鳃足类动物。该项目将利用这一无障碍系统为K-6年级学生开发生态项目;雇用年轻学生从事科学研究;教育服务不足的学生群体，包括美洲原住民和我们西班牙裔服务机构的学生;并致力于湿地保护。研究将集中在以下问题上：遥相关（由风和翅膀传播）和气候因素如何影响大型无脊椎动物群落组成和同步性（时间联系）在一个大系统网络内的短暂池塘？该项目将测试6个假设的因素塑造社区组成，相关的：强扩散，地理可变的扩散，强气候同步性，地理可变的气候同步性，扩散和气候的平等作用，以及随机性的零假设。该研究将在更大区域的25个地点进行，包括国家生态观测站网络（氖）内的5个地点。研究将包括：（1）对池塘无脊椎动物密度和多样性进行采样;（2）分析鳃足类甲壳动物种群的遗传特征;（3）进行关于群落聚集的水槽实验;（4）获得关于通过氖站点迁移的水禽的数据;（5）将风和降雨对物种特征的影响相关联;以及（6）从水禽的肠内容物分析中提取、孵化和鉴定甲壳动物卵。总的来说，这项研究将测试一个知之甚少的现象的有效性，即系统的生物群可以耦合，而不考虑地理上的接近，而是通过风或翼远程连接。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。